Wildfires

A possible benefit to having the level of deforestation Haiti does, is the lack of wildfires, except in the two federally protected parks, La Visite and Pic Macaya National Forests.  Wildfires exist in the areas dry season, December through May, the opposite six months of the year from the Hurricane Season, June- November.  Government officials have been informed of a fire evolving from February 2015 until now in La Visite which began with small brush fires and continued into raging flames on several acres destroying trees.  Firefighters in Haiti have no means to fight fires. Reforested areas have recently been cut down, and the persistent 2014 drought may have exacerbated fires lit for agricultural clearing, as farmers seem to being moving into the protected areas. In the Dominican Republic, May 5, 2015, wildfires have been reported in the green Virgin Forest Los Haitises National Park in the Northeast as well as the Gaspar-Hernandez where approximately five hundred firefighters remain fighting a blaze.  The Environment Ministry of the Dominican Republic asks landowners, agricultural businesses and the populace to implement fire prevention and containment, but have also prosecuting those setting the forest fires with arson!       Dominican Today  -    Visible Earth     -  Alterpresse